SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Trade deadlines used to be about who the Edmonton Oilers had to give up, not who they could get to strengthen themselves for the stretch drive and beyond.

If this is the new world order in the NHL, where a team like Edmonton can add Chris Pronger, Michael Peca, Jaroslav Spacek, Dick Tarnstrom, Dwayne Roloson and Sergei Samsonov, they're loving it.

TAKE STRESS OFF

"We know we had a good team going into the deadline and now we're even better," said veteran winger Ethan Moreau, reflecting on deals that brought Roloson and Samsonov to Edmonton in the last 48 hours.

"Samsonov will take some of the stress off our top line and with Roloson a weakness on our team has been addressed.

"We're confident in all parts of our game, our lineup looks pretty good right now."

Better than it's looked in a long time.

"We've made some deals here that are really seen by everybody here as a vote of confidence for the people we have," said head coach Craig MacTavish, who knows the bar has just been raised.

"Like we said when we added Prongs and Michael Peca, expectations are going to grow. Great.

"Without expectations a lot of times you don't have the chance.

"Now we've got the personnel, we've added two pretty key components at the deadline, to go with Spacek and Tarnstrom, who've been pretty key acquisitions for the club. The onus is now on the players and the coaches to get it done."

Moreau agrees: "It's up to us. We feel we have the pieces now to take a run at this, it's going to be exciting."

HE CAN SHOOT

The Oilers haven't seen a whole lot of Samsonov, but Jason Smith has seen enough to know he's pretty good.

"He's very creative, very gifted with the puck and he can really shoot it," said Smith. "He gets the puck to the net and creates havoc in the other team's end."

"You get a player who's a proven scorer to come in here and provide us help offensively," said MacTavish.

"It's an element that we don't have enough of. He's a guy who can provide offence single handedly."